Microsoft under third EU investigation, this time for OOXML

European regulators have decided to examine violated antitrust laws during …

Microsoft is hoping to position Office Open XML (OOXML) as an alternative to the Open Document Format, which has already received International Standards Organization (ISO) approval. However, Microsoft's OOXML proposal has had a tough time convincing standards groups to go along. In September, a proposal that called for OOXML to receive fast-track approval was voted down by standards groups from countries participating in the ISO meeting in Geneva.

The bad news keeps coming. European regulators have now decided to examine whether Microsoft violated antitrust laws during the OOXML standardization struggle. EU antitrust officials want Microsoft to turn over information about its conduct during the standards-setting process. The company already faces probes into the integration of its Internet Explorer browser into Office and the way Office interoperates (or fails to do so) with competitors' software.

Microsoft has support for OOXML, but also faces opposition from a group led by IBM. This group maintains that Microsoft's OOXML formats are too complex for third-party implementation, giving Microsoft an unfair advantage as the only company able to implement the spec correctly. Office 2007 will likely dominate the market anyway, but getting OOXML approval from international standardization groups will ease the adoption of the suite by organizations and governments bent on storing all their documents in standardized, open formats.